Nether Light

By: Shaun Paul Stevens

Narrated by: Maria Marquis

SPFBO Finalist 2020

A world punished by a dark imprisoned magic.

When refugee Guyen arrives in the land of his enemy, he knows he will fight, but soon falls down a well of wonder and improbability as a mysterious power invades him. And when his brother falls ill to the same deadly force, he will only save him if he can master his newfound abilities.

A gritty, heart-wrenching tale of high magic and high stakes, loves lost and friendships gained, set in an oil-lit 18th-century world.

Epic fantasy for fans of Patrick Rothfuss, Brandon Sanderson, Neil Gaiman, Mark Lawrence, V.E. Schwab, Ed McDonald, Brian McClellan.

Please note: This book contains mature themes.

©2020 Shaun Paul Stevens (P)2021 Shaun Paul Stevens

Unexpectedly Good

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this audiobook.

I didn't really expect too much going into it, but I ended up enjoying it significantly more than I originally thought I would. The performance by Maria Marquis was exceptional throughout and I only really have 2 significant points of criticism:

1. There are references about things and things in general at the start of the book that aren't sufficiently explained. For example, our main character has a "spirit-clone" (trying to stay spoiler-free here) that accompanies him. This being is "introduced" (using the term loosely) pretty much immediately after the prologue, but what it is and its significance only gets explained a lot later.

2. Development of (some) side characters. The most prominent example here is probably the main love interest of our main character. She gets introduced very early and then, especially after our mc leaves his village behind, barely interacts with him. Why should I care about a relationship with a character that I know barely anything about and that has had very little time with the main character?

excellent

This was an interesting listen. There was plenty of action and intrigue. The narration was excellent.
I was given this free audiobook copy at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Great world building!

I found this book had a fairly long fuse. But the story was so well written that I continued listening, because I needed to know what happened next! We get to follow Guyan as he works out how to save his twin brother!
As I said the writing, world building and magic system are all superb! And I've included some of my favorite lines:

""That's preposterous." "Preposterous!" Repeated Janic. "Actually, It's perfectly posterous" She interned." ...Hahaha, the author used the word posterous! You have no idea how happy that made me...

"Mist laughed, "I doubt that she'd recognize a moral if it bit her on the tit. And if she did, she'd ignore it.""

"Wondering whether this new job might be a piece of bad luck in good luck's clothing."

"Emotions can be confusing things, especially when you're sleep-deprived, grieving, hardly able to think. Shock mingled with hope bathed in hatred, dusted in doubt, and distrust."

The narrator Maria Marquis was fabulous and her nuanced performance also insured that I stayed with the story all the way through to the last page!

A must read

Loved the way the Narrator brought each character to life. Loved each twist and turn in the plot that added to the story. I found myself listening longer than I should have because I wanted to know what was going to happen next.